Today cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Many approaches are being pursued with the ultimate aim in curing or treating cancer. Of the various methods used in the treatment of the different forms of cancer, chemotherapy represents the treatment of choice for the leukemias. New prototype drugs need to be developed that will be more effective and less toxic. The most logical approach to finding new prototype drugs is the screening of plant extracts for anticancer activity and then isolating and identifying the principle(s) responsible for this activity. A large number of West African plants have been procured, and several extracts have shown significant anticancer activity. The objective is to isolate and identify the anticancer principles present in these plants. Isolation studies will include fractionation of the crude extract into classes of similar chemical and physical properties followed by chromatography. Identification of the isolated active principle will be made with the aid of physical and chemical methods.